tuesday is a joke /
played on those not quite prepared /
the same game again

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

show me the money

as you're driving out to bucks county this summer, or heading from cudahy to bay view on your way to your best friend from high school's backyard barbecue, look for this logo. when you see a construction project or building site stamped with this sign, you'll know it's been funded by the american recovery and reinvestment act (also known as the stimulus package every republican but three voted against.)

in the meantime, check out the transparency that is recovery.gov. do you think this is why americans trust the obama administration?

3 comments:

because the best thing for a sinking economy would be to let that money trickle out over the course of five years or so.

republican after republican took to the airwaves during the stimulus debate to complain that the money wouldn't be spent until 2010 or 2011 or beyond. now, when 75% of this departments stimulus money is already on it's way to where it's needed most, we're gonna complain that it's happening too fast?

you know where a bug chunk of HUD's money is going? $829,839 to santa barbara county, $521,839 to santa maria and $855,184 to san luis obispo county to keep families from losing their homes, and to help families who have lost their homes. maybe we should ask those folks if HUD shot their wad too quickly.

many, many economists argued that this plan wasn't big enough, didn't go far enough, and that the need for a second stimulus somewhere down the road is almost a certainty. so get ready for a 2nd "handout," not just to HUD, but all around.

"The massive downturn in the US economy will last longer and be more damaging than previous recessions because it is driven by an unprecedented loss of household wealth. Although the fiscal stimulus package that US President Barack Obama recently signed will give a temporary boost to activity sometime this summer, the common forecast that a sustained recovery will begin in the second half of the year will almost certainly prove to be overly optimistic.

A second fiscal stimulus package is therefore likely."

– Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard, and former chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors and a former president of the National Bureau for Economic Research.